Anti-smuggling group tracking down 400 hot cars from Subic
By Perseus Echeminada
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 The Presidential Anti Smuggling Task Group (PASG) is closely working with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to track down some 400 imported cars reportedly issued gate passes from the Subic Free Port and which have found their way to different display centers in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
Undersecretary Antonio Villar, who also acts as PASG chief, said he is now coordinating with the LTO to verify if the owners of the “hot cars” registered the vehicles.
“We are coordinating with Assistant Secretary Reynaldo Berroya for records of the newly registered cars in Diliman and Toledo offices,” Villar said in a radio interview.
The PASG chief said that the “hot cars” suddenly disappeared a day after they were supposed to conduct inspections.
He said the operators of the car display centers might have been warned of the impending inspection, prompting them to pull out the cars and hide them.
Villar said they are now closely monitoring warehouses where the vehicles were temporarily kept.
The PASG earlier tagged the LTO office in Diliman, Quezon City and the Toledo office in Cebu as the favorite “registration office” of smuggled luxury cars from Subic and Cebu ports.
He said the modus operandi of the smugglers is to register the chassis number of a “hot car” and on the basis of that serial number a license plate is then issued so that the vehicle can be sold to unsuspecting buyers.
The smuggled luxury cars are usually slipped into the country through major international ports in connivance with erring Customs officials. Some of the cars are dismantled and placed in container vans. The hot cargo is mostly misdeclared and undervalued and its real contents only known when the vans are opened for inspection.



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